AUSTRALIA
RBA maintains rates
The central bank kept interest rates steady at 3 percent yesterday, saying downside risks in the global economy appeared to have eased, while there were signs previous cuts were working. At its monthly meeting in Sydney, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to keep its cash rate where it has been since December last year, a historic low last reached in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis. “The board’s view is that with inflation likely to be consistent with the target, and with growth likely to be a little below trend over the coming year, an accommodative stance of monetary policy is appropriate,” RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said.
AUTOMAKERS
Toyota to turn profit in EU
Japanese auto giant Toyota’s European business is set to turn a profit in the 2012-2013 financial year after a five-year hiatus, a senior official said on Monday at the Geneva International Motor Show. “It will be the first time since 2007 that Toyota will be profitable in Europe,” Didier Leroy, head of the group’s European operations, told reporters. Over the first nine months of Toyota’s financial year — which runs from April to the end of March — the group said it had earned 209 million euros (US$272 million). Leroy said Toyota’s goal was to sell a million vehicles in Europe in 2015.
ELECTRONICS
Panasonic selling building
Panasonic Corp is selling a building in Tokyo for about ￥50 billion (US$537 million) as the electronics maker tries to recover from losses of more than ￥1.3 trillion in the past two years. Japan’s No. 2 TV maker is selling the office building in Tokyo’s Shiodome ward, spokeswoman Megumi Kitagawa said by telephone. Sumitomo Mitsui Finance & Leasing Co will acquire 90 percent of the rights to the property, and Nippon Building Fund Inc said it would acquire the remaining 10 percent. The maker of Viera TVs is cutting jobs and reducing the number of business units after posting a ￥772 billion net loss in the year ended March last year.
AVIATION
Korean Air bids for CSA
Korean Air has placed an official bid for a 44 percent stake in the troubled Czech flagship carrier Czech Airlines (CSA), Czech media said on Monday. The firms seeks to acquire the minority stake for just a few million dollars, top-selling Czech broadsheet daily DNES said on its Web site. The Czech government set a deadline of this month for bids for the airline, which Ernst&Young auditors estimate to be worth 148 million koruna (US$7.5 million). Qatar Airways, which had previously expressed interest in the CSA stake, would not take part in the bidding, DNES said.
TIRES
Bridgestone closing factory
Japanese tire giant Bridgestone said on Tuesday it was closing a half-century-old factory in southern Italy next year due to slumping demand in Europe. The factory, which employs about 950 people, is one of eight Bridgestone plants in Europe, including sites in Spain, France, Poland and Hungary. It started operations in 1962. Bridgestone blamed the planned closure on “structural changes which have taken place over the last two years in the tire market, both in Europe and globally,” citing “increasing pressure” from lower-cost rivals in emerging markets and a worldwide drop in tire demand.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
RSS